Camp Fantastic

Sarah Rostock Who doesn’t love a good love story? From The Notebook to Romeo and Juliet everyone has their favorite! This may sound the cheesiest of cheesy, but my favorite love story is mine! Me and my husband’s love story began with Special Love’s camps for children with cancer. Let’s go back to August of 2004, I was in the thick of maintenance chemotherapy for leukemia and stepping on to a charter bus to go to camp for a week. Not just any camp, I was on my way to Camp Fantastic, a week-long camp for kids with cancer! I [...]

This July, we received the terrible news that no parent should ever hear: Our nine-year-old daughter Abby had just days to live. Almost two years ago, Abby’s treatment for her type of leukemia included a lifesaving bone marrow transplant. She’s been battling side effects ever since. But recently the complications became so severe that her doctors braced us for the worst. We were devastated. But in the middle of the turmoil, all Abby could think of was Special Love’s Camp Fantastic: It was just four weeks away, she said, and she wanted to go. To Abby, summer means camp. [...]

Julia Jones, Special Love counselor and former camper (Wilm’s tumor) ... For one week every summer, I get to go to camp. Camp is my happy place. This camp is called Camp Fantastic…. In 1998, I was a camper at Camp Fantastic, and Special Love has been a part of my life ever since. For the past six years, I’ve been a counselor at camp. I wish I could tell you the story of every child I met at camp. I wish I could share all of the ways they impacted me and touched my heart. Every year when I [...]

Christopher Barnett, MD, Special Love volunteer ... Last night was the Camp Fantastic talent show. About halfway through, a camper came onto stage to perform “holding breath.” He took a big breath in and held it while we all counted to 30, and the audience went crazy with roaring applause. A few hurried bows and he ran off the stage so the next campers could sing, dance, beat drums, fold origami, or act in a skit. Some acts were simple and some complex, but the audience response was always the same: whistles, hoots, and thunderous applause at the end. We [...]

It is not that "at Camp Fantastic, the checkups just happen to be bookended by canoe rides, archery lessons, dance classes and a carnival," but that, "at Camp Fantastic canoe rides, archery lessons, dance classes, and carnivals just happen to be bookended by medline."

This is my third year of camp and it gets better each time. This year I’m with the teenagers for the first time and it is a whole lot of fun. I already have a great group of friends that I love hanging out with. […]

My name is Tawney and this is my eighth year at camp. Camp Fantastic is a get-away from it all. Here campers don’t have to worry about anything. From the staff to the activities everyday is an adventure, every day is a smile. […]

I am a bad singer. Like tone-deaf-nails-on-chalkboard crazy bad. When I was in high school, the family joke was that I was asked to sing solo…you know, so low that no one could hear me. Singing in public fills me with fear similar to sitting at the top of a rollercoaster with no seatbelt. And here I am at a camp where everyone is encouraged to lead songs. Hmmm. […]